Yes. How would private equity buy them unless they were private companies already?
The point is that Japan has a well-established private-equity industry [1] so the fact that PE firms haven't ruined Japanese railways suggests that PE firms aren't universal corrosive solvents like you seem to want us to believe they are.
[1] https://flippa.com/blog/pe-funds/japan-private-equity-firms/
By privatizing them. Look at European rail in the past 50 years.